Sixteen straight answers about working in Singapore

No. Singapore has no sponsor licence, no sponsor register and no sponsor fee. The employer — a company registered in Singapore — files the work pass application using its own government login. "Sponsorship" in Singapore just means the employer who files the application.

No. Only MOM decides, and any promise of approval before the pass is issued is either a guess or a lie. What an employer can honestly tell you is which pass they will file, the fixed monthly salary, and whether the pay clears MOM's floor for your age.

Two things: the fixed monthly salary and who the employer is. We refuse to publish an ad without them, because they are what decide whether the job is possible for you. The pass the employer will file is never printed on the ad: ask the employer which pass it is before you apply, and we keep it privately so the pay can be checked against MOM's floor.

Where the employer is applying for an Employment Pass or an S Pass, the job must first be advertised on MyCareersFuture for 14 consecutive days with no changes. Then a Work Permit is decided within 1 week, and an Employment Pass within 10 business days — or up to 6 weeks if the employer is an overseas company without a Singapore-registered company. Add Philippine or Indian exit paperwork before you can actually fly.

A Singapore agency may collect no more than 1 month of your fixed monthly salary for each year of service, capped at 2 months' salary. Your in-principle approval letter states your salary and the fees paid to the Singapore agency. If the two numbers disagree, stop and report it.

The employer. MOM makes the employer responsible for the levy and work pass fees, and the Work Permit security bond of S$5,000 cannot be charged to the worker. If anyone asks you to pay those, they are passing on a cost MOM says is not yours.

No. Overseas employment for Filipinos is processed through the Department of Migrant Workers, and you leave on an exit clearance (the OEC / OFW Pass), not a tourist ticket. Jobs found online are still processed — through name-hiring with your employer on record, or through a licensed Philippine agency.

Singapore is not on the list of countries requiring Emigration Clearance Required (ECR) clearance, so an Indian worker going to Singapore does not need a Protector of Emigrants sign-off. Do not let anyone charge you for a clearance Singapore does not require.

Only through a Singapore-registered entity or an appointed agent. An overseas company with no Singapore-registered company cannot file the pass itself, which is why that route takes up to 6 weeks. If an ad hides this, ask directly.

No. It rises with age on the Employment Pass and S Pass, and the financial sector requires more. At 45 an Employment Pass needs S$10,700, not the headline figure. Our salary page shows the full table by age.

Because the board is public. A listing shows the work, the years, the shift and when the person can start — never a name, a phone number, an email or a CV. Each person carries a reference code instead. When an employer chooses someone by that code, we ask the licensed agency that looks after them — or the person himself, if he is already in Singapore and needs no agency — whether he is still available, and only a yes releases contact details.

We ask, and the answer has to come inside 24 hours. If the agency says no, or says nothing at all in that time, we read it as not available: the listing comes off the board, the contact details on it are removed, and the employer is charged nothing for it. An employer is only ever counted for a person who was confirmed available.

He comes off the board while that unlock is live — held in the background, not deleted, his details kept whole so he can go straight back on. Whoever answered for him is then asked, in one click: put him back on the list, or has he been hired? A person reported as hired stays off the board, and the answer is counted. That count of hired answers is the only number we publish for people who were confirmed available and then told us they were hired — we do not estimate it, and no employer is charged anything for giving that answer.

Nothing for the first 100 contact unlocks: a new employer account carries 100 contact unlocks free, which is S$135 worth at our promotional price. After those are used, an employer buys a pack from the contact-unlock wallet on the people board — 30 contact unlocks for S$40.50, 50 for S$67.50, or 100 for S$135. That is S$1.35 a contact unlock. These pack prices are promotional until 30 November 2026; from 1 December 2026 they double. A contact unlock is only used when a person is confirmed available and their contact details are released; a no, or silence, costs nothing.

Never. Employers post jobs free; we take no money from a candidate for a job, an introduction, an application or an outcome. BestHirePath is a job board, not an employment agency, and we do not arrange interviews, negotiate salaries, submit work passes or place anyone.

Employers convicted of a false declaration under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act face up to 2 years' imprisonment, a fine of up to $20,000, or both. Employing someone without a valid pass carries a fine of $5,000 to $30,000, or up to 12 months' imprisonment, or both.